Moonen Packaging

What started as something small about 60 years ago has now grown into a full service chain director in the packaging industry. Customers can now choose from more than 10,000 items. We are talking here about Moonen Packaging, a specialist in food and non-food packaging, packaging materials, hygiene products and disposables. However, the growth that Moonen Packaging has experienced also has a downside. The packaging material that is placed on the market ends up in a waste stream almost as quickly. Something the company doesn’t feel comfortable with. To provide an appropriate answer to this, Moonen Packaging is committed to doing business as sustainably as possible. According to Ruben Nolles, Supervisor Operations Support at Moonen Packaging is not that difficult. “ First of all no more plastic, but 100% sustainable (renewable) materials. Our coffee cups now form the raw material for biogas and compost. In Europe we are therefore a frontrunner in compostable packaging. ” “ Unfortunately, not everyone in society is 100% convinced that we have to do something about sustainability, but at least we do what we can. Our ambition is for 50% of our customers to buy packaging from renewable raw materials by 2020. ” The scope of sustainability is not limited to the use of sustainable raw materials only, but also to making housing and transport more sustainable. “ In 2020 we will move to a new building. That will be BREEAM Very Good, where we do not use gas and generate the energy through solar panels. ”

By striving for a sustainable chain, Nolles ended up with the Lean Green Off Road program. “ An appeal was made to companies that wanted to connect to the corridor from Rzepin in Poland to Tilburg. That triggered us and then we started conversations. ” Until then, rail transport, partly because of a wrong perception, was hardly or not in the picture at Moonen. After a few conversations with GVT Intermodal and Lean Green, the first pilot was organized from Poland. This showed that the costs remained almost the same, while the concept offers many logistical advantages. “ By using the Tilburg terminal as a logistics disconnection point, Dutch drivers are now unloading our trailers on demand. Previously, there were just Polish drivers at the gate. Our warehouse managers are very happy with this, because this ensures a much more streamlined process internally. ” According to Nolles, track is now so popular with Moonen that internally applications are now coming from various sides. “ Recently I was asked if I could also organize rail transport from Pakistan. This shows that everyone is really enthusiastic about the transport from Poland. ”
“ That does not mean that you can sit back. Much coordination is needed with the parties involved using the same corridor. This may deter some (potential) shippers. I say to them: Just do it! You will see that it is often possible if you go for it. ” Moonen Packaging managed to save CO2 emissions by approximately 40% on the Rzepin – Tilburg route. “ It doesn’t end here for us. We continue to look for improvements. In our chain and beyond. We look beyond the truck and want to get off the road as much as possible. ” That is why Nolles is currently investigating the possibilities for intermodal rail transport from Italy. This concerns approximately 70 containers per year and therefore sufficient potential for significant savings in CO2 emissions . Nolles also sees a lot of potential for the track: “ In addition to the larger volumes, the track is also interesting for relatively small volumes per transport. This shows that many small and medium-sized companies can use the track. So there is still a lot of market to be gained ”.